Our 2002 Honda Odyssey had 90,000+ miles. Because of the number of miles, we were told by dealer service to replace timing belt, water pump, cam seals and crak seal plus flush coolant to the tune of $825. Should we go ahead and do that or wait for them things to just “go out” one at a time?

Those things all need to be done at 105k I think. Maybe. Look in your owner’s manual. It should tell you in the maintenance section. You should look in your owner’s manual for ALL your maintenance needs, that way you can’t be swayed by dealer B.S. such as “well your power steering fluid needs to be flushed blah blah.” You will know what needs to be done on your vehicle and when. The dealer isn’t doing you a favor by reminding you to do this stuff, you’re doing them a favor by going there.

And NO you do not wait for those things to “go out”. If your timing belt “goes out” you will have to get your engine rebuilt. Why would you wait for things to go out one at a time when you can take care of it in one clean sweep? This is all preventative maintenance and the water pump, seals, etc. go hand-in-hand with a timing belt replacement.

Also, you do NOT need to take this car to the dealer, find a mom & pop mechanic and they will have you out of there for hundreds cheaper. Unless of course, you like going to the dealer and $ isn’t an object to you. Good luck.

For the life of me, I just don’t understand why vehicle maintenance should be such a mystery to some people. Every vehicle manfacturer provides a comprehensive maintenance schedule, and places it in the glove compartment for the use of the vehicle owner.

If I am interpreting phyllis’ post correctly, it appears that she has still not utilized that maintenance schedule, even though 6 years and 90,000+ miles have elapsed. In addition to the current 90k issues in her post, this really makes me wonder about whether the specified maintenance was done at the major intervals of 30k and 60k. If these procedures were not done at 30k and 60k, the vehicle’s effective life has already been negatively impacted, but this damage can be ameliorated to some extent by doing ALL of the specified 90k maintenance procedures.

Proper maintenance is invariably cheaper than the repairs that result from lack of maintenance. If phyllis waits until the timing belt and the water pump “go”, she will potentially be looking at $3,000. for repairs–in addition to $800. or so for these maintenance items that are now due or overdue, depending on the amount of time that has elapsed since the vehicle was placed into service.

Phyllis–Do yourself a HUGE favor and begin using the Honda Maintenance Schedule for guidance on maintaining this vehicle.

I hope you mean when those things come due according to the maintenance schedule in the owner's manual.
Usually it is a better idea to get them done early than to do them later. It may even save you some money having them all do at once.
You should know that unless the dealer is providing the service an no charge, you are not required to have the dealer do the maintenance. You likely can save some money by having an independent mechanic do the work. Independent mechanics are no worse, or no better than dealers, but you generally will save money with them, although you will not likely to be served fancy coffee in the waiting room.

Note: If you choose a non-dealer (frankly even if you choose the dealer) save the documentation to be able to prove the work was done and to help you remember when and what was done.